One of the hardest things with using the iPad in the classroom is finding the time to go through all of the apps in the iTunes Store listed under the education banner. We have started to list some of the apps we've found under each of the Key Learning Areas.

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Thursday, January 5, 2012

So what's on the iPad for the kid in your class with a Hearing Impairment?

There are many students with hearing loss that are integrated into mainstream schooling. These students struggle with the day to day situations that we simply take for granted or do not really have a full appreciation of.

Are there apps available to give these kids a leg up?

The simple answer is YES. These apps have been sourced as one way that the technology integration that happens in your room may be shared with all your students. These are apps that your hearing impaired students could use to make their everyday school live a little easier.

Subtitles: FREE
Subtitles allows easy access to a huge library of movie subtitles in 20 languages. Subtitles is especially useful for the hard of hearing and people who would like access to subtitles in their native language when visiting the cinema. You’ll be able to access the subtitles of the very latest cinema releases, as well as those for older movies. The application currently supports 20 major world languages.

Speakit: $1.99 AU
Speak it has now been designed to work with iOS 4, and take advantage of all the multitasking features. Have Speak it read your emails, news articles, documents and more while you do other things with your iDevice! Copy emails, documents, web pages, PDF files, and paste them into Speak it!, and have the text spoken back to you with the highest quality text to speech engine available anywhere.

SoundAMP R and Lite: $5.49 and $0.99 respectively
SoundAMP has been tuned to provide crystal clear sound at the maximum volume possible. It even reduces volume over the limit. Simple-to-use controls allow you to tune the sound with the equalizer, adjust background sound levels for each situation, and replay the last 30 seconds. With soundAMP R, record it all -- capture lectures, presentations, interviews or doctors advice.

Google Search:
Search the web faster and easier with the latest Search app from Google. Get exclusive search features only available in this app for the best search experience. Search made easy especially when using Voice Search: Search by voice and skip the typing or Google Goggles: Snap a photo of what you see to find more information about products, landmarks or famous paintings.

TapTap: $2.99 AU
TapTap is the only app in the appStore designed specifically to help Deaf and HoH bridge the gap to the audio world. Loud noises trigger TapTap to notify you with vibration and a flashing screen. Alone at night in your quiet home? Turn TapTap's sensitivity all the way up and it will respond to the slightest sounds: a distant gentle knock, a door closing, a baby fussing nearby.

Sorenson BuzzCards: FREE
BuzzCards is an app designed to help deaf people communicate easily with people who don’t sign. The app works like a deck of flash cards. You can create some cards ahead of time that you might need to use more often “Where is the restroom?” or “Where is the nearest bus stop?” Your cards are kept organized by category (for example, “Dining” or “Travel”) to make them easy to find.

Decibel Pro: $0.99 AU
Decibel Meter Pro starts reading the sound levels that surround you every day! Want to know just how loud this club is? Decibel Meter Pro can help! Just how loud is this lecture anyhow? Decibel Meter Pro can help! How good is the sound isolation in this room? Decibel Meter Pro can help! Download Decibel Meter Pro and measure the sounds around you right now!

Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard. Dragon Dictation will also utilize the data in spoken messages collected over time to continuously improve and provide high speech recognition accuracy. This app is getting better all the time.

TuneWiki: FREE
Don't let your kids with hearing problems miss out.The music player with Synced Lyrics in any language. The only music player where you can get, share and talk about lyrics and music. Easily Share lyrics with your network of friends or listen to any music with synced lyrics. TuneWiki has free, unlimited SongID with synced lyrics that lets you get lyrics instantly translated into 40+ languages.

IP-Relay enables people who are deaf or hard of hearing to use an iPhone to quickly and easily call people who are hearing. Like an instant message, you type your side conversation. A certified operator receives it and voices everything you type to the hearing person. When the hearing person responds, the operator types their words. You watch the entire conversation live, right on your iPhone.

Access your Google Voice account right from your iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. Send free text messages to US phones and make international calls at very low rates. Access your voicemail messages with transcription. Make calls with your Google Voice number. A Google Voice account is required to use this app. Google Voice is currently only available in the US.

The Z4 Mobile app allows deaf and hard of hearing people to make and receive phone calls to and from any videophone. Use your iPhone 4, iPad2, or iPod Touch 4th Generation to communicate with friends, family and business contacts—hearing or deaf—anywhere WiFi or 3G is available. Choose to place a call from your contacts list or by manually dialing the number you would like to call.

Danny the dragon meets Jimmy: $2.99 AU
Danny The Dragon Meets Jimmy is a captivating, multi-award winning tale about a lovable dragon named Danny, and his sidekick Skipper. In a most unusual way, they stumble upon the home of a boy named Jimmy. Danny’s mode of transportation - he shrinks and travels in a green sea shell! Reading the story, children are also transported to a simpler place and time.

Garfield's BooClips - Pet Force: $2.99 AU
The BooClips have become the new way to read books, offering a variety of fantastic features such as word for word narration, voiceover recording, 3D interface, touch capabilities, sign language interpretation, translation to different languages, easy navigation between pages, an animated magnifying glass, a dynamic bookmark that remembers where the reading was stopped.

Adaptive Books - 5 Pumpkins: $0.99 AU
Enjoy Halloween with your little ones while they learn with this interactive book! Using a sign language interpreter to tell and model the story, this app is designed for educating children with special needs or communication challenges. Beginning users and those with motor or visual impairments get to work on simple drag and drop interaction techniques and matching numbers.

Old MacDonald for iPad: $0.99 AU
Created by Listening and Spoken Language Specialists with Early Childhood Teachers, Old MacDonald is a highly interactive learning experience. The app is full of wonderful interactive games to encourage the development of listening and language skills in young children. Families of children who have reduced hearing or language problems will find the app particularly useful.

LazyTown is a digital children's book application which describes various stories with use of multimedia, video clips, vivid animations, songs and music from LazyTown TV series. Among the fantastic features that the LazyTown app offers you may find word-for-word story narration, voiceover recording, a dynamic page flip, magnifying glass, bookmark, sign language translation, and much more!

The Cain and Abel BooClips continues with the memorable and ageless tale of the brothers, Cain and Abel — a lesson in obedience and right attitudes relevant for today’s culture. The new way to read books, offering a variety of fantastic features such as word for word narration, voiceover recording, 3D interface, touch capabilities, sign language interpretation, translation to different languages.

SIGN LANGUAGE
There are literally dozens and dozens of Sign Language Translators, Dictionaries and Tutorials for learning to Sign. To list any of them would be to neglect other equally good versions. If you are after sign language apps can I suggest that you search the app store under the heading of the appropriate sign language depending on your country of residence. In Australia we use AUSLAN but I know that America uses ASL and in England they use BSL, obviously there are numerous local signing variations.